Three medals won at World Rowing Championships

Great Britain add a gold, silver and bronze to medal tally in Shanghai

Great Britain has now won seven medals at the 2025 World Rowing Championships, today adding one of each colour to the two gold and two silvers already won. The PR3 Mixed coxed four maintained their long-standing unbeaten record by retaining the gold medal for the 14th consecutive time. Featuring many senior Worlds debutants, the Men’s eight won a thrilling silver, while the women’s eight won a brilliant bronze.

In the PR3 mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+), Paralympic Champions, Frankie Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Ed Fuller, Josh O’Brien and newly selected cox, Tom Bryce, were fast off the start and maintained the lead to cross the finish line almost seven seconds ahead of China and Germany.

Ed paid tribute to the GBRT support staff who have been helping the athletes prepare for racing in high heat and humidity. “We had a few very hot days when we arrived, and it calmed down a bit, but it’s picked up again in the last few days. So a massive thank you to all the support staff at British Rowing. They’ve been on it with ice jackets and ice packs to keep our core temperature down while we’re out there on the water. I don’t think it would be possible to achieve what we just did without their help.”

Frankie added: “Although we’re unbeaten the nerves stay the same on the start line. I think the more you win, the more you have a target on your back. So it pushes us to keep going as fast as we can and push the limits as well. It has also been exciting to get back racing. This was our first race together since Paris!”

Giedre was celebrating a special career milestone, explaining: “This means so much because I now have a record as the PR3 woman with the most World Championship golds. I’ve got six World golds and two Paralympic ones – so I’m so proud of that – it’s a big one for me!”

The Men’s eight (M8+) won a silver medal in a tense race which had been restarted due to technical issues. The crew of Will Stewart, Archie Drummond, David Bewicke-Copley, Fergus Woolnough, Miles Beeson, Sam Nunn, Matt Aldridge, Matt Rowe and cox Will Denegri battled through in the closing stages to take second place behind the Dutch and ahead of USA.

Matt Rowe said of the restart: “I was impressed with how we were completely not fazed by it and kept focus. We go through situations in training all the time while we try to shake ourselves, and throw ourselves off and I think we did that today too.”

Archie added: “I think I think the guys did a really, really good job at committing to the race plan. I think we’d be lying if we said that we were dreaming of getting a silver medal. But it’s important to remember these feelings, use it as motivation for training and next season”

Matt Aldridge said: “We put up a good fight. We were moving well in the middle which was our race plan and kept coming back. The Americans wouldn’t let us have it our own way, but we put up a really good fight to come through. We could have rolled over. It’s a young crew with not much international experience so I’m really happy for these guys and looking forward to what happens next.”

It was a bronze medal for the Women’s eight (W8+) of Eleanor Brinkhoff, Juliette Perry, Amelia Standing, Martha Birtles, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Heidi Long and Megan Slabbert and cox, Jack Tottem.

Speaking after the race, Eleanor said: “I think I think we’d be lying if we said we weren’t going for the gold. I think you have to shoot for the stars! But to come away with a medal at the World Championships, particularly as it’s the first for so many of us, it’s just amazing.”

Martha added: “I think it’s testament to how strong this programme is and how we often say we’re standing on the shoulders of giants in the GB Rowing Team. To come in at a first time senior World Championship with our eyes on the gold, it just shows how hungry we are. This is an amazing result, and we’ll celebrate this. It’s great to come away with something shiny!

Juliette said: “We felt confident that we could stick with the pack and keep going. I feel like we pushed all the way and gave it the best result that we could today. It’s been a tough regatta. Half our crew have doubled up and they’ve done an amazing job balancing the two boats. We’ve had amazing help from our reserves and all the support staff to manage that. To medal at World Championships, I’m beyond excited.”

The final day of racing is tomorrow (Sunday) where Lauren Henry will look to maintain her dominance in the Women’s single sculls final and Sam Murray & Annie Caddick line up in the PR3 Mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix2x) final. Racing is live streamed on WorldRowing.com. You can also follow the GB Rowing Team instagram for daily updates from China.